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MY BEGINNING
CHAPTER ONE:
They always made us wear bleached
white aprons during meal preparation. I never understood why. Wouldn’t the
usual pleated navy jumper hide stains better?
I walked into the bright industrial
kitchen gleaming with shiny stainless steel appliances and reflective
countertops. Multiple workstations and islands filled the center of the room;
while stoves, sinks, walk-in refrigerators, freezers and racks bordered the
walls. The ceiling, or lack thereof, revealed exposed
pipes and vents tangled together in a mess of function. I have always been
intimidated by this room, feeling insignificant and unprepared.
The rest of the class hurried in from behind
me eager to get started chopping, boiling and stirring, but I was hesitant.
Everyone had teams and partners picked out months in advance. Me, I was the odd
one, always too quiet and shy to make many friends at all.
A mother nurse quickly rushed to my
side.
“Ivory. Go join Alice and Kya.”
I stared at the giggling girls who
looked too much alike and not at all like me.
I looked down at my pale, almost white
skin, seeing blue veins that were eerily visible. I hated my skin. It was
completely different from any of my brothers or sisters -- at least from what I
could see. The only vision I’d had of myself was a reflection in a pot of still
water.
Mother nurse gently pushed my body
toward the girls who were obviously not my blood sisters. They had just begun
rolling out pastry dough, each one of them working hard to get the thickness
perfect.
“Hi, Ivory.”
She dropped an unusually bright orange
into my palm. I walked to the counter keeping distance from Kya and set the fruit onto an old wooden chopping block. The slab of wood was
scarred from years of use. Without a word, Kya handed
me a butcher knife and I broke the skin of the fruit. A spray of citrus
erupted, awakening my senses.
Annoyed by my stalling, Kya grabbed the knife from me. “Just cut it…like this.” She
slammed the knife into the fruit creating two halves. “Now cut those into
halves, and so on...”
I kept my eyes on the orange, trying
not to overhear Kya and Alice mumbling insults about
me, then quickly cut the halves as instructed and left the girls to their
chatter. A small two-person table
against the only available wall in the room was a rare sanctuary. I pulled the creaky wooden chair out, but a
mother nurse appeared at my side.
“Ivory, what are you doing?”
“Is it alright if I sit out for today?”
“For what reason?”
“I’d like to observe the relationship
between nurse and student.” My carefully planned words came out in a flurry.
“For research purposes.”
Mother nurse gave my face a thorough
examination. “Are you feeling unwell?”
“I am feeling very well.” I lied.
Within seconds she had gone to a second
mother nurse at the other side of the room. They congregated on my behalf, each
of them staring me over at least once within the conversation. The second
mother nurse finally walked to my table, handing me a notebook and pencil.
“Ivory, since you’ve decided not to
participate, I want you to write a two-page descriptive essay on intervention
skills as a mother nurse.”
It could have been worse. “Alright.”
“You are to sit quietly and not disturb
anyone, understand?”
“Yes.”
I watched her walk away in the standard
grey button-down dress all of the mother nurses wore. She stood at the doorway,
hands crossed, watching me with blank expression. I went to my notebook and
scribbled in-between the blue lines before looking up again. I tried my best to
keep my eyes on the nurses sprinkled throughout the kitchen, but I couldn’t
help but find the students much more interesting.
A group of three brothers were standing
at a silver worktable near the ovens preparing chicken with vegetables. One of
them had his white dress-shirt sleeves pushed up. He was sprinkling seasoning
onto the meat, while another nearly burned his finger checking the oven. The
third looked just as bored as I was, slowly chopping a line of freshly peeled
carrots.
Another group, a trio of sisters
including snotty Cassandra and her sidekick Emily, were too busy giggling to
pay any attention to the lasagna noodles boiling over onto the stove.
A quick glance identified their
distraction: Kyle was juggling eggs, Mason was doing a jig and
“THAT’S ENOUGH!”
The crack of a pointing stick echoed
throughout the room leaving nothing afterward but the sound of food boiling and
sizzling. Kyle’s eggs had fallen to the floor, and he was quickly removed from
the class, leaving everyone unnerved.
I continued to scan the room and jotted
down a few words, mostly for show. It wasn’t until I reached a group on the far
end of the kitchen that I was suddenly caught off guard.
Aidan was looking at me while he
pressed round metal cutouts into pastry dough. When I met his unusual blue-grey
eyes, he stopped. I quickly looked away,
scribbling nonsense onto the paper, then waited for
several minutes before daring to look back up. Aidan had gone back to his
repetitive task, while his partners chuckled amongst themselves, reminding me
of how rude Alice and Kya had been minutes earlier.
Aidan was the only one from the
outside, sent to us from a different institution. He was never to speak of it
and we were never to ask, but still my siblings hounded him with questions.
Every one of the girls old enough to flirt had a thing for Aidan since he was
not a brother we’d grown up with. The fact that he was extremely attractive and
eighteen only added to the appeal. Mother nurses had given many lashings since
his arrival. Flirting or showing affection of any kind was forbidden.
CHAPTER
FOUR:
Little plants sprouted from the ground,
tickling my bare knees. The sun in its full glory re-energized my entire being.
When I took in a deep breath, a soft breeze tantalized my nose with scents that
were diverse and complex, like nothing I’d encountered in the greenhouse. I
looked out in every direction and saw nothing but miles of thick forest. Vast
expanses of dense trees and plants spread out before us in a variety of greens,
browns and yellows. It was an enormous garden that went on forever.
We stood in awe, speechless, taking in the
unfamiliar scenery around us. I broke away from Aidan’s hand and twirled in the
sun, happily enjoying its warmth. I released my hair, which fell loose from its
bun. The sharp pins that always poked at my head flew to the ground. I felt so
alive and wanted to touch every living thing in my path. Even the dirt and
rocks at my feet were amazing.
I made my way to the nearest tree and
rested my palms against its wide, strong trunk. One look up into the branches
and I was breathless. It soared toward the heavens as far as I could see and
seemed to brush the bright blue sky. The branches and leaves created a
beautiful canopy that glittered in the sun. I smiled at the sky, excited to
continue exploring. I knew I would never get tired of this infinite new world.
I looked at Aidan who was watching me with an amused grin.
“Isn’t this amazing?” I asked, still
hugging the tree. “It’s all so beautiful. This is exactly what I’ve dreamt of
my entire life -- to be here, doing this.”
“I know.” His smile widened.
I walked back to him, immediately
burying myself in his arms. “Being here with you is everything I’ve ever
wanted.” I looked up into his eyes, happier than I’d ever been. His smile suddenly faded.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just want to be able to take care of
you and protect you. I know nothing about the land or how to survive.”
“It doesn’t matter, you’ve already done more than enough. We’ll figure it out together.”
He nuzzled into me, then his hands went to my torn clothing. “What did that woman do to you?”
I swallowed hard, trying not to
remember the details. “She whipped me, twice.”
“Unclothed?”
“Yes.”
He looked infuriated all over again.
“Can I see your back?”
I turned and held my hair aside as he
carefully peeled the clothing down. A gentle stroke near the wounds awakened my
body to his touch.
He zipped me back up, then I spun around and looked into his sad eyes.
“The skin’s not broken, but it’s badly
bruised,” he said.
“It’s not bothering me very much,” I
lied, although I knew he could see right through me. The old metal door caught
my eye from behind him, still wide open. “What is the purpose of this door?” I
asked.
He turned to look at it with a small
frown. “I don’t know for sure. Maybe it was used to transport supplies?”
“How did you know it was here?”
“I didn’t, I just assumed the extra
tunnel led somewhere else. I wasn’t sure exactly where.” He paused. “We must be
pretty far out though. I can’t see the institution at all.”
I never cared to see its ugly walls
again. The trees were so thick it was impossible to see much of anything anyway.
A tight suffocating reality hit me hard. I tried to push it away, but it
wouldn’t let up.
“Do you think we’re already infected?”
“Ivory, there’s no way to tell.”
“How long do you think we have?” I
asked, looking into the grave expression on Aidan’s face.
“I don’t know.”
I focused again on the beauty around
us.
Aidan firmly shut the door, then we headed away from it, our hands in a tight embrace.
We walked along, enjoying every second
of our uninhibited freedom. We even skipped! After chasing each other around,
hopping over rocks and playing silly made-up games, we found a small cove
beneath a giant boulder to sit and rest.
I nestled up to Aidan who held me in
the crook of his arm, being careful not to harm my injuries.
“I still can’t believe that we’re out
here,” I said, fingering one of the buttons on his shirt. “It feels like a
dream.”
“It does. So many nights I dreamt of us
being free together.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
I smiled as I remembered how brave and
strong he’d been when rescuing me from that terrible torture room. Aidan was
amazing. My stomach lurched with the realization that he could have been
injured too.
“Did you get whipped?”
“No, I fought the teacher off.”
“But, how did you find me?”
“I activated the sirens, then ran to
the east wing basement…that vile woman was running down the hall. I tried two
doors before I found you.”
I laughed. “You activated the sirens? I thought they set them off because of you.”
He chuckled.
“But how did you know where the tunnels
were?”
“When they first brought me here, after
I met with Oliver, we traveled in them from his mansion to the main building. I
tried to memorize how many there were and where we came in. And today it all
looked familiar.”
“You’re so smart. I could never do
anything like that.”
“Yes, you could.”
I snuggled closer to him, taking his
free hand in mine. “Is your finger okay?”
“It’s fine. I think it looked worse
than it was.” He held it up, the line where it had been cut barely visible.
“They sealed it nicely.”
“I was worried about you.”
“I know,” he said smiling.
We sat in a comfortable silence and
enjoyed our rest together in the wilderness. I was tired from the day’s drama,
coming down from all the highs and lows. Overall, I was feeling content,
despite our unavoidable obstacle. Even if the plague somehow didn’t get to us,
I knew we would probably die of starvation or exhaustion. Still, I couldn’t
help but wonder what was out there -- if anything -- and if we could possibly
get to it.
“What are we going to do? Where will we
go?”
“I thought we could just keep walking
the way we have been, away from the institution,” Aidan said.
“Do you think there are any survivors?”
“Maybe…there have to be remnants of the
old world somewhere. If we keep walking, we might run into something,
eventually, that will tell us what we need to know.”
“What if no one survived and we’re the
only ones out here? The only ones left?”
“Then I feel lucky to be with you.”
There was an eerie sense of peace, just
the two of us. And somehow I knew, without any logical reason, that everything
was going to be okay.
Aidan and I walked at a comfortable
pace until the sun began to lower into the horizon. We stopped to watch the sky
turn from gold, to orange, to pink, then purple, astonished by the natural
beauty. Before the light faded completely, Aidan did his best to clear a spot
for us to sleep. We sat there amongst the dark shadows of trees, staring up
into the night sky. The twinkling stars captivated us for what seemed to be
hours while my stomach reminded me I hadn’t had dinner. In an attempt to keep warm,
I pulled the white button-down shirt Aidan had given me over my shoulders. The air was comfortable, yet cool enough to chill my scrawny
body.
Aidan laid beside me on the ground, using his forearm as a pillow. His crisp white t-shirt
stood out in the soft glow of the moonlight. My eyes scanned his strong,
muscular body. Before I knew it, I was wrapped tightly in his arms, safe and
comfortable in the silence of the night. I relished the moment, soaking in
every bit of him and the amazing feel of our embrace. His soft breath and warm
arms lulled me into a welcome slumber.
Excerpt of My Beginning
ISBN: 978-0-9846317-5-9